Bands Who Know Not of FUNK in Any Semblance

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As a sister thread to this...
What bands are FUNKY, but they are seldom described that way?

Which band are utterly devoid of funk?

I'd say...
- Buzzcocks
- Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
- The Wedding Present
- Fudge Tunnel
- Swans
- Sisters of Mercy
There are more...list'em....

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Belle & Sebastian.

I'd disagree with you about Buzzcocks. Selzer played "Boredom" last night and it is extremely funky, albeit inhumanly fast.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

US Maple

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

crass.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

cLOUDDEAD

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

r@dioh3@d

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

buzzcocks have "why cant i touch it?", too.

― peter smith (plsmith), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Buzzcocks definitely have some funk to it.

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just gonna say "Why Can't I Touch It" as well.

Fudge Tunnel = haha, I didn't know anyone even remembered them. Great version of "Sunshine of Your Love" those guys did.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Millions and millions of bands have not the funk. Sisters of Mercy though, at least people dance to them.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

erase errata
northern state
buckethead

― harshaw (jube), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

creed
staind
paul mccartney post 1970

― harshaw (jube), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I think I'm wrong about Buzzcocks. Sorry about that.

Millions and millions of bands have not the funk. Sisters of Mercy though, at least people dance to them.

Yes, but making danceable music doesn't necessarily equate with making funky music.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

David Fucking Grubbs has no funk, no funk at all.

― sexxxyHexxy, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Buckethead has fucking armies of garbage trucks full of funk backed up over the horizon!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:46 (twenty-one years ago)

David Gray

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost to Alex - truer words were never spoken. Or typed.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

buzzcocks-SOME funk? They could easily qualify for the other thread.

As for this thread, I should like to add:

Merle Haggard

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude Merle Haggard is funkier than fuck! What the shit is going on in this thread? White people, god.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Stone Roses

I was gonna say the Red Hot Chili Peppers but I'm not in that crabby a mood right now, I guess.

Merle Haggard is EXTREMELY funky. He's got as much jazz rhythm in his music as any country artist since Western Swing, for crissakes.

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

BOB FUCKING SEGER

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

There ya go! Cutty has redeemed whitey!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

And "Stay Loose" shows that Belle and Sebastian are on at least surname terms with funk.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

>paul mccartney post 1970<

wrong, "Jet" and "Junior's Farm" (and didn't he have some disco crossover hit around 1978?) are as funky as almost anything he did BEFORE 1970.

The Bob Seger nomination is even more ignorant.

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Vienna Boys Choir

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Seger is antifunk. His music is a fucking funk-destroying vortex of ass!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

By the way, not being funky is NOT a crime. Funk isn't right for every occaission, after all.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

JAMIE FUCKING CULLUM

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Merle Haggard is quite complex! See my comment in the other thread; I mean it, both ways.

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate to say this, because I love Skinner & his music to death, but The Streets. The Streets is not particularly funky whatsoever.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Re: McCartney....

"Comin' up" was kinda funky. It was CRAP, but it was still kinda funky....or at least it attempted to be funky.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't heard Jamie Cullum yet, but I heard his version of Frontin' is pretty hot.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bob Seger nomination is even more ignorant.

please cite me a FUNKY bob seger tune and i will try to feel the funk

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

No wait lemme retract that...A Grand Don't Come For Free isn't funky. Original Pirate Material is fine in the funky dept.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty much any metal band ever influenced by Iron Maiden or Slayer or Korn belong on this thread, though. And pretty much any indie "rock" band between, say, 1988 and 1999 or so. And pretty much any alt-country and powerpop band that ever existed. (Except the exceptions to all of these, which are probably somewhat numerous if you put your mind to it.)

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post to Jordan) Yeah, it's probably the best single ever recorded.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

opening barres of OTR&R dude

― Huk-El (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, now I'm trying to think of a bunch of groups/people I really like who haveth not teh funk:

Sigur Ros
Kronos Quartet
Explosions In the Sky

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Korn can be kinda funky, no? Don't misinterpret that as a word in their defense, but they do occaissionally attempt the funk, no?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

mimic'ing funk does not IMPLY funk capability

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Korn cannot be funky. Oh how they try.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

codeine?

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Insane Clown Posse, not funky.
311, soooooo ridiculously not funky.
Franz Ferdinand, they've done well to trick a bunch of indie duderz that they're funky, but they're still not.
P. Diddy, convinced he's Mayor of Funktown, and nowhere in his expansive riches does he own a single ounce of funk.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Stone Roses

dude Chuck, ever hear "Fool's Gold"?

You're totally right about Seger, tho. "2 + 2 = ?" = more funk than these fools can handle

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Lisa Loeb?

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Seger funk: UMC, Get Out of Denver, Sunspot Baby, Lucifer, Back in 72, Lookin Back, Nutbush City Limits, Rosalie, Santa's Got a Brand New Bag (a fucking JAMES BROWN cover, for god's sake), Persecution Smith, East Side Story, Ramblin Gamblin Man, 2+2=?...just about everything he did pre '80, in fact, and especially pre '76. He wasn't quite Mitch Ryder, I admit, but he played the same bars, you know?

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Elliot Smith
The microphones
Merzbrow
Anal cunt

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Helloween

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

...in conclusion, stick-up-the-ass morons like the Chili Peppers and Fishbone and Primus WISH they were as funky as the Bob Seger System and Seger's Last Heard (and even the Silver Bullet Band) used to be.

(actually, Primus come off kinda funky when they try to play COUNTRY, but not at all when they try to play funk, as near as I can tell.)

xposts

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Funktelligence

― ben tausig (datageneral), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 58 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

drag assed tempos are frequently funky as hell!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that what milking a cow sounds like?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

you don't milk a cow at a drag assed tempo! it would take all day! not funky!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:25 (twenty-one years ago)

>I have a test pressing of the 12" they did for A Screw or Time Is Money Bastard, I forget, they're sorta variations on a theme. That period of the Swans was funky<

Well, about as funky as "We Will Rock You" by Queen, anyway...Though I swear I heard "Time is Money (Bastard)" played back to back with Run DMC in an r&b record store in Elizabethtown, Kentucky (just outside of Fort Knox) around 1985. I promise I am not making this up.

― chuck, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

wow

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, about as funky as "We Will Rock You" by Queen, anyway...

Is this statement supposed to be indicative of something's unfunkiness? Cuz "We Will Rock You" is some serious F-word shit. I think I'm just gonna hafta leave this thread alone because it's making me feel funny in my brain.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Y'know, Bootsy Collins has never been quite the acrobatic-styled bassist people make him out to be. His basslines were usually very simple but heavy on the processing. Flea & Claypool & Wooten et al get most of their lookitme! bass styles from Stanley Clarke & Larry Graham & Jaco & such.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

jeez. I just used Bootsy as a example of someone roundly associated with funk.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

The point: Be he a funk god or not, Bootsy Collins is one fuckuva lot funkier than Bob "Against the Wind" Seeger will EVER be.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

You know who has no funk whatsoever and doesn't even try, like comes from a world where the concept of "funk" never came to be? Barenaked Ladies.

xpost I'm just a'ramblin' now Alex

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

You know who has no funk whatsoever and doesn't even try, like comes from a world where the concept of "funk" never came to be? Barenaked Ladies.

That's `cos Canadians know no funk. And don't say Bootsauce either, `cos they didn't get it right.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Flea & Claypool & Wooten et al get most of their lookitme! bass styles from Stanley Clarke & Larry Graham & Jaco & such.

as a former teenage reader of many guitar mags...I will go with Nick on this one...also don't forget Stu Hamm

That's `cos Canadians know no funk

I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

funky

adj 1: offensively malodorous; "a putrid smell" [syn: fetid, foetid, foul, foul-smelling, noisome, smelly, putrid, stinking]

Many bands on this thread are funky!!

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Bands whose live performances I've been forced to endure by the promise of good drugs and sweet sweet hippy girl poontang wherein I saw many many crusties really "feeling the beat, MAAAN" who were in no way, shape, or form jammin' on the one: String Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, Disco Biscuits (what a shameful waste of an almost kewl name), whatever that one band's name really is that me & my slightly clued in friends call Black Banana Deepthr0at.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

if you ever want to see a show filled with the promise of funk but not any actual funk, see a band in L.A. called (ugh) M a m a Sutra, whose lead singer comes on like a cross between Janis Joplin and Edie Brickell.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

ew worst band name ever god! It makes me feel like I need to scrub it free of my brain with sandpaper.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

That's `cos Canadians know no funk.
If we're talking about rock bands, then I agree, but don't get me started on techno ...

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

but "Tom Sawyer" by Rush is funky....ask any hip hop dj!

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Re: Birthday Party
"Nick the Stripper" counts as funky if only in the fact it sounds like Tracy Pew's bassline sounds like in actually is going in and out of a man's anus, and baby, that's a fonky,

― HexxxyDancer, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

remove a "sounds like in" from that OOPs

― seexyDuncer, Wednesday, 23 June 2004 23:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The Birthday Party's "Happy Birthday" was also pretty damn funkay in an odd way.

Declaring that Canadians know nothing about funk is like declaring that Michael Dempsey (of The Cure and then Associates) never got his groove on! Just listen to Fly Pan Am's second album!

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 24 June 2004 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

concidentally i heard OLD TIME ROCK N ROLL in a taco bell after all this funk threading.

and it was NOT IN THE LEAST BIT FUNKY.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 24 June 2004 00:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Cutty, that's because it's been scientifically proven to be the most irritating, awful song in the history of the world.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Thursday, 24 June 2004 00:36 (twenty-one years ago)

yes it is

and i am appaled by certain ILXors position on his funkiness

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 24 June 2004 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the high llamas (the funky cooties carried by stereolab didn't jump onto mr. o'hagen).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 24 June 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I am retracting my knee-jerk agreement with Alex's "Canadian rockers know no funk" statement.
Do Make Say Think are also well-acquainted with the funk, further disproving the assertion.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 24 June 2004 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, not all of his songs are bad! It's just that this one casts such a lengthy, pitch-black shadow of shit.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Thursday, 24 June 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

And since Bootsy Collins's influence in the world has primarily been to convince nitwits like Les Claypool and Flea that all a band needs to make themselves funky is mumbo-jumbo blabbermouthing plus a bassline that sounds like you're milking a cow, one could easily make an argument that Bootsy should've been stripped of his funk ribbons years ago.

Not his fault that he (unwittingly) begot Les Cesspool et.al.
That's like saying James Brown is not funky because so many morons have used the Funky Drummer rhythm as their "instant hip hop/funky" beat on umpteen awful recordings. To say Bootsy is not funky is just plain weird. And wrong.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 24 June 2004 01:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Though I swear I heard "Time is Money (Bastard)" played back to back with Run DMC in an r&b record store in Elizabethtown, Kentucky (just outside of Fort Knox) around 1985. I promise I am not making this up.

E-town's got the funk.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 24 June 2004 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you using "R&B record store" as a relative term?

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Thursday, 24 June 2004 01:55 (twenty-one years ago)

you got rhythm, you got blues, you got R&B.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 24 June 2004 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

(my statement regarding the utter, abject funklessness of all things Canadian was not meant to be taken quite so seriously).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 24 June 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"Not Rap and Bullshit!"

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Thursday, 24 June 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Radiohead for the most part, with "Airbag" as a glaring exception.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 24 June 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Most (certainly not all though) hardcore punk and speed/thrash/death/black metal/grindcore to thread.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 24 June 2004 07:08 (twenty-one years ago)

...which is not an accident, I'm guessing. That said, the Bad Brains were heckafunky.

Anyone remember Token Entry's lamentable "funk" album? You're blessed if not.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 24 June 2004 13:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, Myonga's name reminded me as well of the funkless greatness of MX-80 Sound.

Yep, gotta agree, even though they titled a song "Felonious Funk" back in '77! (Also "You Turn Me On / I'm A Sex Machine")

As for funkless bands with actual African-Americans in 'em...well, I can't offhand think of anything by Love that was truly funky, although Lester Bangs once described Arthur Lee's solo LP (which I've never heard) as "There's A Riot Goin On as performed by an old toothless janitor" or something like that.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

**Radiohead for the most part, with "Airbag" as a glaring exception.**

See this is a typical example of people thinking that to stick in a slightly syncopated drum beat makes something 'funky'. See also 'She's Lost Control'. It doesn't. They're not.

To be funky you have to have a second rhythmic line opposing the main rhythm - either explicit or just 'felt'. (Ha they're not at all funky. Felt, I mean). In fact the Buzzcocks did this quite nicely in 'Why Can't I Touch It'.

Classic example of band often described as funky, but aren't remotely - Cabaret Voltaire. On the other hand 23 Skidoo's 'Coup' IS. To get an idea of the two rhythm lines listen to the two bass guitars. The drums on the other hand hold a pretty straight non-shuffle 4/4. See also The Temptations 'Shakey Ground'. The Gang of 4 ARE quite often funky because the rhythm guitar is working in opposition to the bass and drums. Josef K for the most part are NOT because they simply strum furiously. (An exception is Heaven Sent - here the guitars set up the two lines).

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Did anyone say Iron Maiden yet?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

That's `cos Canadians know no funk.

HEY! Just 'cause we can't PLAY it doesn't mean we don't know it when we HEAR it!

(No disputing the wretchedness of Bootsauce or Barenaked Ladies, certainly.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Bush
Live

― People love Gravity and Ebullition! (ex machina), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

How about whole genres? For instance, "Funky Breaks" are not funky in the least, and they've got the word 'Funky' in their name!

― tylero (tylero), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

> funkless bands with actual African-Americans in 'em...<

TV on the Radio spring immediately to mind.

As for Canadians, there is definitely a sense of funk on late '70s Streetheart and early '80s Loverboy (and maybe even Aldo Nova) albums. And plenty of French stuff from Montreal I can't remember the name of right now has funk in it. As does *12 Inches of Snow.* As do Joni Mitchell and Shania Twain, on certain special occasions.

― chuck, Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

¿Quién es menos funky: Moxy Fruvous o Born Against?

― superultramega (superultramarinated), Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Born Against spawned Men's Recovery project who I'm sure dabbled with funk at some point.

― People love Gravity and Ebullition! (ex machina), Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

>concidentally i heard OLD TIME ROCK N ROLL in a taco bell after all this funk threading.
and it was NOT IN THE LEAST BIT FUNKY<

So? What does one nonfunky song prove?(It's still funkier than anything by Pavement, though. How come nobody's mentioned them yet?)

― chuck, Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

tad

― ben tausig (datageneral), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

uhh chuck, i was responding to this

opening barres of OTR&R dude

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Sum 41

― People love Gravity and Ebullition! (ex machina), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Bingo Gazingo

― ben tausig (datageneral), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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